Exclusive: PragerU Supplemental Educational Materials Adopted for Arizona Students

PragerU’s supplemental educational materials for school curricula have reached Arizona and Tom Horne, Arizona’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, could not be more pleased.

A rally on the Arizona Capitol grounds Wednesday celebrated the adoption of PragerU’s supplemental education materials, and Breitbart News attended.

Immediately after the rally, PragerU’s Marissa Streit fielded questions from local reporters, telling them, “We’re here to serve with our free, optional, supplementary educational content–video, magazines, books–all the things that kids should learn but are probably not learning. We are here to open a window.”

Thereafter, Breitbart News was given exclusive access to an interview between Horne and Streit.

During the interview, Streit highlighted how “heartwarming” it was to see PragerU parents attend the rally to show their support for the new materials. But she noted that there have been “hit pieces” written against Superintendent Horne already and that she suspects more leftist pushback will follow, now that the adoption of PragerU materials is official.

Horne quickly noted, “Taking [criticism] from the left gives me the same adrenaline high that my friend gets from skydiving.” 

Streit pointed out that the left’s attacks on Horne are not coming from local or regional outlets only, but that MSNBCs’ Joy Reid referred to him as “America’s worst state educational official.”

Horne responded, “Being called ‘the worst state educational official’ by Joy Reid is the biggest compliment I could get.”

He then smiled and explained his involvement in Arizona education in the 1990s, when he was a state legislator and the topic was charter schools. He noted that then, as now, he believed “the market should prevail and people should have as many choices as they want,” when it comes to education. 

Horne explained, “They do have those choices in Arizona. Not like New York, where they have a lottery and one in one hundred get to go to a charter school and the others are crying. Here, anybody who wants to go to a charter school can.”

Streit noted that, to date, the left is outraged that Horne brings choice to Arizona education, as exemplified by the new addition of PragerU supplemental educational materials. 

She said, “One of the questions we’ve been confronted with is, ‘How dare we not have bureaucrats review all the content?’ to which my answer is, ‘Well, how about we have parents review the content?'”

Horne responded, “Great answer. The mission statement we adopted when I was elected is that the Department of Education is a service organization dedicated to raise academic outcomes and to empower parents.”

The PragerU supplemental educational materials can be viewed here. The materials have also been approved for use in Florida, Montana, Oklahoma, and Texas, among other states. 

The PragerU materials provide “content grounded in traditional American values that inspire self-reliance, patriotism, and resiliency while teaching foundational knowledge in subjects ranging from civics to financial literacy.”

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a Turning Point USA Ambassador, and a pro-staffer for Pulsar Night Vision. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and holds a Ph.D. in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.